Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 4870X2

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I had the GTX 280 version of this heatsink and I found it was brilliant 90% of the time (similiar temp drops to what you found) but in Trine or Anno 1404 the VRMs overheated quickly. Those two games seem to pull in a LOT of power, just like Furmark. Had to switch to water in the end.

I noticed the X2 version you tested uses proper screws to hold the heatsink over the VRMs. On the 280 it's sticky pads - which is a stupid oversight.

interesting... spend the 50 quid or use it for an upgrade when the DX11s come out... a conundrum indeed!

I love my 4870x2 to death but i am more aware of the noise it makes now, so much so that i would consider this when choosing my next card. it's not all about horsepower anymore *sob*

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Originally Posted by BoogleI had the GTX 280 version of this heatsink and I found it was brilliant 90% of the time (similiar temp drops to what you found) but in Trine or Anno 1404 the VRMs overheated quickly. Those two games seem to pull in a LOT of power, just like Furmark. Had to switch to water in the end.

I noticed the X2 version you tested uses proper screws to hold the heatsink over the VRMs. On the 280 it's sticky pads - which is a stupid oversight.

and yes, the card goes mental when running Trine!!! i thought it was just that it was only using one core as it wasnt optimised for the x2... not sure what it could be now.
thinking about it, playing call of juarez it is pretty loud so it leads me to believe any game with heavy post processing could be a culprit

hmm...so how is it with noise then? is it noisy or can be considered as quiet during operation. Been using AC gfx coolers on all my gfx cards but 4870x2 cooler wasn't available, and accelero s2 with scythe 12cm fan on it (8800 gts 512) was silent, fan spinning at 50% and load temps around 50C. Can you achieve similar results in terms of noise with this baby? 4870x2 noise is really killing me and been waiting for this cooler for some time (AC was saying on the page available end of may but you couldn't buy it). please let us know (i can still make it for tmrw's delivery :) )

The 4870X2 Accelero won't be available in the UK until at least september, possibly October. which is what makes it a tricky choice. What if it doesn't fit the next generation dual card? It will be a bit of a waste to keep this for two months if I intend to upgrade to a DX11 X2. You can import them from the US but that will cost about £70, a lot to pay for a cooler. Also, with so few available to test, reviews aren't very thorough, no consideration of noise here, or how the coolers would perform with two next to each other. Some VRM temps would be nice too, as it goes without saying the GPUs aren't going to overheat.

Originally Posted by The ArticleThe three fans whirred away at respectable noise levels throughout testing. Because the cooling responsibility is shared out between three 92mm fans, they're never going hit anywhere near the same whining decibels levels of the stock fan when it's spun up.

Originally Posted by The ArticleThe three fans whirred away at respectable noise levels throughout testing. Because the cooling responsibility is shared out between three 92mm fans, they're never going hit anywhere near the same whining decibels levels of the stock fan when it's spun up.

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Originally Posted by hexxhmm...so how is it with noise then?

and? it doesn't say if it's silent or not, it says it's quieter than stock cooler (and to be honest i don't believe there's louder gfx cooler than the one on 4870x2 :) )

Originally Posted by hexxand? it doesn't say if it's silent or not, it says it's quieter than stock cooler (and to be honest i don't believe there's louder gfx cooler than the one on 4870x2 :) )

Used around 60%ish, it's inaudible over low-ish speed case fans, and cuts over them a little when the cooler's at 100% full blast. However, you'll see a GPU temp of about 40 degrees at this point, provided the case is decent. (I did)

I think that this is too big... too late. It would be more attractive if it came with a factory overclocked card, but it is rather a turn off that it uses so much space and doesn't get rid of the hot air.

Originally Posted by The ArticleThe three fans whirred away at respectable noise levels throughout testing. Because the cooling responsibility is shared out between three 92mm fans, they're never going hit anywhere near the same whining decibels levels of the stock fan when it's spun up.

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Originally Posted by hexxhmm...so how is it with noise then?

and? it doesn't say if it's silent or not, it says it's quieter than stock cooler (and to be honest i don't believe there's louder gfx cooler than the one on 4870x2 :) )

I have this cooler on my 4870x2 and it amazes me that no hardware page so far mentioned one of the BIG problems with it, did u ever check the vrm temps ? they go through the roof with this cooler, the vrms are certified up to 125 c but when u dont run the fan at 100 % they go up to 140 c !!!!!!!

Originally Posted by samuelmorrisThe 4870X2 Accelero won't be available in the UK until at least september, possibly October. which is what makes it a tricky choice. What if it doesn't fit the next generation dual card? It will be a bit of a waste to keep this for two months if I intend to upgrade to a DX11 X2. You can import them from the US but that will cost about £70, a lot to pay for a cooler. Also, with so few available to test, reviews aren't very thorough, no consideration of noise here, or how the coolers would perform with two next to each other. Some VRM temps would be nice too, as it goes without saying the GPUs aren't going to overheat.

But it sounds like you really need to put this card under watercooling... I mean if the VRMs overheat with the AC aftermarket cooler then it is pretty useless...

Comments about testing overclocking pointial are pointless... I found I couldn't overclock a X1950 Pro under water (not a good loop setup I should point out and poor aircooling around the card) because the VRM's weren't cooled at all. The waterblock was really designed for the X1900 XT(X) cards. The X1950 Pro card became unstable even with a 5% overclock!! :(

If u have the money go for a water block, the arctic is quite quiet, but u still have to run 100 % fan and ull hit very high vrm temps ( especially Juarez brings them way up ) i installed another 120mm fan directly below it to ensure it gets enough fresh air, did i mention i had to copletely alter my air cooling setup because the case gets really hot now inside and my former stable cpu clocks became unstable ? i used artic cooling solutions before and they all seemed better than this one :(
On guru3d they mention a couple guys killed their 4870x2 running this cooler ( including the review guy himself) didnt happen to me but seeing the high vrm temps on my cards maybe they just didnt notice untill it was too late...

Not silent, but a heck of a lot less noise than the stock cooling solution. No, it doesn't get rid of the heat from inside the case, but it certainly doesn't accumulate as much heat as the stock cooler either--heat from one GPU to cool off the next GPU only made for a hotter exhaust after.

I have the MSI OC version, and the screws on the back of the card for the X braces were too short. A tip from another board suggested taking screws out of the OEM cooler and using those, since they'd be long enough. Had left a message at the AC support page, and they mailed longer screws.

The AC cooler should have been the cooler on the board by default, as the single blower stock cooling solution is a piece of crap.

Originally Posted by GameTravelerNot silent, but a heck of a lot less noise than the stock cooling solution. No, it doesn't get rid of the heat from inside the case, but it certainly doesn't accumulate as much heat as the stock cooler either--heat from one GPU to cool off the next GPU only made for a hotter exhaust after.

I have the MSI OC version, and the screws on the back of the card for the X braces were too short. A tip from another board suggested taking screws out of the OEM cooler and using those, since they'd be long enough. Had left a message at the AC support page, and they mailed longer screws.

The AC cooler should have been the cooler on the board by default, as the single blower stock cooling solution is a piece of crap.

If that cooler would be there on stock u would se failure rates over 90 % by now.

Originally Posted by lenne0815If that cooler would be there on stock u would se failure rates over 90 % by now.

Without verified statistics through verified testing, your percentage means nothing to me. Show me the numbers you're quoting from. The Accelero is stock on various other OEM cards. It runs cooler than the OEM cooler, and short of using water cooling, it's one of the better air cooling units out there, from what I've seen.

My 4870x2 would have one GPU hotter than the other, and within stock settings using current ATI drivers, it's been getting more and more prone to forcing the entire system to reboot due to the level of heat. Simply for the reason of how crappy the OEM cooler is.

Sooooo, I want to see what numbers you're looking at. Links would be helpful, if you please.

Quote "After our publication we have received multiple reports of people ending up with a dead card just like we did. This problem seems extensive. At this time Guru3D can NOT recommend you to purchase this product until the product is 100% resolved. Once AC will release an updated and safe SKU we'll remove this text again. "

Here a inside look of my case if u want to tell me its because of missing / inadequate airflow

And before u start judging a product u dont even own u should try atleast to google, it gives u information !

I didnt google either ( my fault) and threw the money away for a flawed product, but if u want to do that aswell, please go for it traveler ill be the last one who hinders u.

And i didnt say the factory cooler is good, its really noisy, thats why i exchanged it, i think at this point there are only three options, either watercool the 4870x2, live with the hairdryer noise from the stock cooler or go team green.

This is the best mod for the 4870x2. I picked it up for $50 shipped in the US. The only issue I have with it is clearance. I'm using an Antec 1200 Case with 2 wind tunnels and the side fan. 9 case fans total, all Tri Cool and all on low, except the side fan which is set to medium. With a room temp of 22C, fan speed at 50%, any higher and I notice it over my other fans. A reference for sound, my Samsung DVD burner is the loudest component in my PC. I can even here my WD Black 1TB occaisionally. The loudest fan is the one in the power supply (Corsair 750TX) under extreme load when is ramps up, and thats rare.

Installation was a breeze. I reused the screws from the stock heatsink enclosure to fasten the X crossbars on the back side and there was no issues using them. I originally had VRM's on one GPU hitting 100C until I took a closer look and saw that the heatsink wasn't making contact with the top most VRMs. Here I took one of the thermal pads from the stock heatsink that was originally sitting on the Vitec Multi-Phase SMD Coupled Inductor. Luckily it wasn't falling apart. I also had to fold over the very smallest thermal pad to make contact. Arctic should have definitely made a better fit for these. I will be e-mailing them soon. I also used my original 8 pin vs the 8 pin to 6 pin adapter they include.

So for any nay sayers, do your research and don't be afraid to make minor modifications. Absolutely recommended.

Hey unspoken, what game at what res did you test ? and how long did u let it run ? could you maybe up a "paint" pic where u mark which thermal pads didnt make contact ? im really trying to figure this problem out, but for me ! nothing ! worked so far.
A good game where problems show up is call of juarez, any chance u could try that for a longer period and provide a screenshot with ur logged temps ??

I finally gave up and remounted everything aswell. ich double checked everything against the instructions and agains various pictures from review pages, everything was seated correctly. regardless, i applied thermal paste to both sides of all self sticking cooling pads put it back together and run some tests. But before i did that i noticed one flaw in the thermal pad / cooler setup under the bigger heatspreader the long thin thermal pad reaches over two more little components which the standard cooler doesnt, i just cut it a bit shorter, because the two additianal components are a tiny bit higher and thereby hindering the aluminium cooler to sit tight on the vrm regulators.

one set of vrms is now considerably cooler ( wont go much above 90c ) i think that is the set under the bigger heatspreader.
the temps on the second stayed the same and i think the reason for that is that the little aluminium cooler is just not up to the task of dissipating enough heat.

how you can achieve only 82 degrees under load is an absolute miracle to me, i cant figure it out at all.